The present invention relates to a masking tool employed to protect the hole(s) in an article such as a car body from a surface treatment such as coating, plating, vacuum evaporation, phosphatizing, and the like.
Further, the present invention relates to a masking method employing said masking tool to protect said hole(s) of said article from said surface treatment.
More particularly, the present invention relates to a masking member which comprises a cylinder having an inlet at one end and an outlet at the other end, a plural number of masking members having a plug shape respectively and these being put in said cylinder to be placed one upon another, and a transporting means arranged in said cylinder to transport said masking members successively from the inlet to the outlet of said cylinder.
To protect the hole(s) of said article, said masking members in said cylinder of said masking tool are successively transported from the inlet to the outlet of said cylinder by said transporting means and said masking members are successively inserted in to said holes of said article before said surface treatment.
When a surface treatment is effected on the surface of an article, and if said article has hole(s) in which said surface treatment should not be effected, said hole(s) of said article should be protected by inserting a masking member(s) having a plug shape into said hole(s) before said surface treatment. In the case of the under side of a car body, said hole(s) may be water ejecting hole(s), shaft hole(s), harness hole(s) and the like, and a paint such as a polyvinylchloride-sol, a tarurethane mixture and the like is coated on said underside of said car body for corrosion, sound, and vibration proofing.
In a case of the surface treatment of the article having many holes, such as the coating of the under side of a car body as above described, many masking members should be inserted into said holes before said surface treatment. Further, in the case of a continuous mass-production line, said masking members should be inserted into said holes in a short time. Still further, in a case of a continuous mass-production line, it is desirable that said masking members be automatically inserted into said holes.